Important Notices

2023 Midsumma Pride March

Once again our school will be taking part in the Midsumma Pride March down Fitzroy Street this Sunday morning (5th February) to show our support for equality, acceptance and our diversity of school families.

Everyone (parents, students, friends & pets) are invited to join us for this wonderful St Kilda community event. We encourage you to wear SKiPPS Orange.

• What: Midsumma Pride March 2023 - https://www.midsumma.org.au/whats-on/events/midsumma-pride-march/ 
• When: Sunday, February 5th 2023 meeting from 10:30am (with the march starting at 11)
• Where: Meeting at Ian Johnson Oval (directly beside SKIPPS). We are in the Wave B "Youth" section and our number is B8. 

Spread the word and see you there!

Meeting your child's teachers

With the school year starting, we understand the importance of providing opportunities for you to meet with your child's teacher to share information and understand what 2023 will look like for them.

On Wednesday 15th February, all year levels will run Parent Information evenings. This is a chance to come along to understand about the learning, routines and events for the year directly from the teachers and ask any questions that you may have. For our Foundation - Year 2 classes, these sessions will run straight after school from 3:45 - 4:30pm. Our Year 3-6 teachers will run sessions from 5:00 - 5:45pm. Further details will be provided on Compass from your child's teachers.

The following week, (week commencing 20th February), we will run Parent Teacher Interviews for students in Years 1-6. These are an opportunity to meet 1:1 with your child's teachers, to share any information that is important and to ask any questions specific to your child. Whilst most interview slots will be on Tuesday 21st February, teachers will provide meeting times throughout the week to support all families to attend. 

We ask that you try your best to attend these sessions to help us build a strong partnership between school and home - something that is essential for children to achieve their best.

 Prior to these events, teachers will be completing a full handover to allow 2022 class teachers to pass on any key information about students to their new teachers. 

A reminder that our teachers are always available for short chats at the start and end of the school day and are contactable via email.

2023 Student-free days

As the new school year begins, we are happy to share with you our student-free days for this year. These are days that our staff will be using for training and professional learning and are a combination of Curriculum days and Teacher Professional Practice Days. Students are not required at school on these days and we will work with Team Kids to ensure that a full-day program of care is offered for families. 

As always, we have tried to minimise disruption for families by keeping them at the start or end of a week and/or attaching them to public holidays.

• Monday 24th April (Curriculum Day) ANZAC DAY public holiday Eve
• Tuesday 13th June (Teacher Professional Practice Day) Day after King's Birthday public holiday
• Friday 28th July (Curriculum Day)
• Friday 8th September (Curriculum Day)
• Monday 6th November (Curriculum Day) Melbourne Cup Eve
• Friday 24th November (Teacher Professional Practice Day)

Staying Sunsmart

A reminder that, right from the start of the year, our Sunsmart policy applies and we ask that families support us to help keep children safe from damage caused by the sun over break times and lunchtimes.

Until the 30th April, all students are required to wear a broad-brimmed hat when playing outside at break times or during sports lessons. If you require a new hat, these are available at the school office for $10 and we ask that you clearly label them with your child's name. Children with no hat will need to play under the shade sail in the quadrangle. 

We also ask that children apply SPF30 or higher sunscreen before school each morning onto face, arms and legs. Please provide your child with SPF30 or higher sunscreen in their bags (a small roll-on or bottle attached to the outside of the bag is perfect) to reapply before going outside at break times.  Teachers will remind and support children to reapply at these times. 

In addition, whilst SKiPPS does not have a school uniform, students are expected to wear clothing that covers shoulders and, on days with high UV levels, we recommend that this includes clothes with collars, elbow length or long sleeves and longer style shorts, dresses or skirts to provide maximum protection from the sun. 

Extra Curricular activities

At SKiPPS we are excited to provide lots of opportunities for students beyond the classroom to explore and develop their skills and passions. Some of these are offered by our school staff, some by our parent community and others by external providers. Below we have tried to collate all of the opportunities in one place and encourage your child to get involved in 2023.

Annual privacy reminder for our school community

Our school collects, uses, discloses and stores student and parent personal information for standard school functions or where permitted by law, as stated in the Schools’ Privacy Policy.

Please take time to read our school’s collection notice, found on our website https://www.skipps.vic.edu.au/community/school-documents/

We ask parents to also review the guidance we provide on how we use Google Workspace for Education safely at the school and what parents can do to further protect their child’s information. If after reviewing the guidance, you have any questions or concerns regarding your child using Google Workspace for Education, please contact the school.

For more information about privacy, refer to: Schools’ Privacy Policy — information for parents. This information is also available in ten community languages:

• Amharic
• Arabic
• Dari
• Gujarati
• Mandarin
• Somali
• Sudanese
• Turkish
• Urdu
• Vietnamese